Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson spoke from D23 about Carrie Fisher’s “beautiful” performance in the film as Leia, and said he hopes fans experience “catharsis” from seeing the actress play the character one more time. Fisher was originally meant to appear as Leia in all three of the new trilogy of films until her untimely death last year at the age of 60.

Fisher became an icon thanks to her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy, and returned in 2015 along with fellow original cast members Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and others for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first …